1st Edition

Religion, Secularism and Politics A Mediterranean View

Edited By Jeffrey Haynes, Guy Ben-Porat Copyright 2014
    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    Political debates in many Mediterranean countries today are increasingly framed in dichotomous terms, highlighting divisions between religious and secular worldviews. The role of religion in public life or, put another way, the ‘public return of religion’, is a pertinent and controversial political question everywhere in the Mediterranean region. How do we explain this phenomenon? On the one hand, we can point to both economic and demographic changes, while, on the other, we can trace the impact of continuing secularisation. Together these two sets of developments produce new challenges to existing political arrangements.

    This book examines the contemporary interaction of religion and politics in the Mediterranean region with a specific focus on democratization and democracy and the role in this context of selected religious actors. Individual contributions focus on several European countries (France, Italy and Turkey), while others are concerned with states in the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt, Israel, Morocco, and Tunisia). Among European countries, France is widely regarded as a highly secular country, with over 50% of people regarding themselves as ‘without religion’. Morocco, on the other hand, is a much more religious country, measured by the fact that an estimated 94.5% of Moroccans self-identify themselves as Muslims. The specific country studies were selected because, whether they are ‘religious’ or not, each case has current controversies involving both religious and secular actors which impact upon key political relationships, centrally involving religion, secularization and democratization/democracy.

    This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

    1. Religion, Secularization and Democracy in the Mediterranean Region: Problems and Prospects  Jeffrey Haynes and Guy Ben-Porat

    2. The ‘Arab Uprising’, Islamists and Democratization  Jeffrey Haynes

    3. Secularizing Islamism and Islamizing Democracy: The Political and Ideational Evolution of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers 1984 – 2012  Sumita Pahwa

    4. Re-emerging Islamism in Tunisia: Repositioning Religion in Politics and Society  Teije Hidde Donker

    5. Democracy, Civil Liberties and the Role of Religion after the Arab Awakening: Constitutional Reforms in Tunisia and Morocco  Emanuela Dalmasso and Francesco Cavatorta

    6. Are We There Yet? Religion, Secularization and Liberal Democracy in Israel  Guy Ben-Porat

    7. The Debate on the Crucifix in Public Spaces in Twenty-First Century Italy  Luca Ozzano and Alberta Giorgi

    8. Sacred Laïcité and the Politics of Religious Resurgence in France: Whither Religious Pluralism?  Amélie Barras

    9. The ‘Europeanization’ of the Religious Cleavage in Turkey: The Case of the Alevis  Kivanc Ulusoy

    Biography

    Jeffrey Haynes is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 35 books. He is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at London Metropolitan University, UK.

    Guy Ben-Porat is the author of Between State and Synagogue (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Ben-Gurion University, Israel.